Ruthy Ballard is a children’s book author, artist, and scientist who lives in coastal Oregon. By day, she’s “Dr. Ruth Ballard,” a professor and forensic DNA expert. By night, she romps in an imaginative playground of colors and words.

Ruthy is the author of Frankie and the Gift of Fantasy and Tales by Moons-Light: Stories from Before the Great Melt. The third book in her Tales by Moons-light series, Elvia and the Gift of Passion, is in the Advanced Reader Copy phase, due for launch in February, 2023.

Her entertaining stories lure middle grade readers into science, but her creative ventures don’t stop there. She’s also a folk artist whose colorful “cartoons” delight and inspire both children and adults.

Ruthy is married to a musician and is the mother of two sons, two cats, and three lively dogs, all of whom appear in her work, in various guises, from time to time.